Australian Rugby Union says National Rugby Championship to start in August

Updated
Mon 24 Mar 2014, 1:50 PM AEDT

The Australian Rugby Union has announced a new nine-team domestic rugby union competition, the National Rugby Championship, will start in August.

The competition will feature two teams from Queensland, four from New South Wales, and one each from the ACT, Victoria and Western Australia.

These will include teams representing Queensland country and NSW country.

Each team will play the other eight teams once over nine weeks, including a bye. The top four teams will then qualify for the finals.

All Super Rugby players will be required to play in the NRC, while Wallabies players will be allocated to a team and will play if available.

The Australian Rugby Union's (ARU) previous attempt at a second-tier national rugby competition, supporting Super Rugby, was the Australian Rugby Championship in 2007 which lasted just one season before abandoned after losing almost $5 million.

ARU chief executive Bill Pulver said the new NRC was an important element in developing the game in Australia.

"For Rugby fans it will provide an opportunity to engage with an elite Rugby competition during the second half of the year, once the Super Rugby competition is completed," Pulver said in a statement.

"For players it represents the missing link in their development pathway towards Super Rugby and ultimately Wallaby selection.

"It will also support the ARU's objective to create additional compelling content for broadcasters with a quality local competition to rival New Zealand's (National Provincial Championship) and South Africa's Currie Cup.

The NRC will kick off in late August and will run until the beginning of November.